What? Many thoughts swam through his head in that moment. They hadn't spoken in so long, and he could hear the malice in her voice. Confusion flashed in his eyes as he tried to grasp what the situation exactly was. While she was a leader, she was hardly in fighting condition. If she attacked, he could beat her... but get away after that? No. Not without some damages he could not repair when he cleared his name. But, hopefully no fight would happen today. He didn't want one, and something told him that Littlestar was expecting one.

Such a simple question posed conflict beyond words to the pitch-black tom. The surface answer was simple. "No." He paused. "Appreciate, yes. Admire, yes. Loyal, yes. Treasure, yes. But not love." His voice quivered. Memories came flooding back from his younger days. "I have loved... moons ago. Toxicity, Absum Lux, MoonClan." It was simple, really. He already met his soulmate, and she had passed.  He tilted his head to the side. "Understand?"

"Yes." He kept his face just as hard to read, if not perhaps more stolid. He was trained and lived for a while as an assassin, so hiding his emotions came naturally to him. If a cat was unwilling to show him theirs, he would never show them his. "I appreciate. She knows. She understands." Again, the tom tilted his head to the side. "Do you?" He shook his head. "No. You don't. Clearly."

The tom took a deep breath. Perhaps it was time. "I don't see you talking to all your kits' mates like this." He voiced sounded hoarse and bare. "Tell me what you want. What about me scares you? What about me makes you think that you need to protect your daughter?" He tapped his claws against the stone. "Be honest." While he had changed quite a bit from his younger years, his ocean blue eyes made it clear who he once was. He sized up Littlestar in mere moments, and knew where he wanted to go. He could see paler/thinner fur and flesh along her flanks and some strange wounds he couldn't quite on her face in addition the cuts littering her fur from her fight with Bloodystar. She was practically a walking weak spot, one he didn't need to touch to hit.

Perhaps it was time to throw some emotion in. Nightfury's eyes narrowed as the High Priestess spoke. Really, this she-cat talked nonsense. "As far as I am concerned my first mate is dead. I still love her, but there is no way for me to see her again. I will never not love her." He paused. "You understand that, at least a little bit. When you were locked up, you must have thought that you would never see Skipstep again. It hurts. You know that. I have been feeling that pain for years." Anger flashed in his eyes and one of his paws tapped furiously against the ground. "Don't make me the bad guy for loving someone. Sunnysmiles doesn't, and she knows me far better than you do."

The raging emotions in his eyes and body vanished in an instant. "As for the cat from my past, I'm sure that I haven't..." His voice trailed off. That one day... no, that was moons ago. It clicked. "Ah... Omega, was it?" He couldn't help but hold some reverence for his former leader. "I knew he was around... but doing things? I thought he was washed up." Nightfury chuckled. "Really, the last time I saw him was when I got kicked from the Coalition. Then maybe... sixish moons ago, by chance." He knew plenty on his old acquaintance but he dared not spill the beans too early.

He didn't believe her. If she knew that he knew Omega, the older tom no doubt told her about the heinous acts he committed. Nightfury would deny that he was bad now, but upon taking a more holistic view, he couldn't deny it. He had done too much evil to be atoned for in one lifetime. But, it was not something to argue with. Sunnysmiles's assurance relieved him. They were so different... it always amazed him that they balanced each out so well. He nodded and slowly relaxed his muscles. He hardly flinched at the scars. "I saw them already. Your coat didn't do a good job hiding it." He paused. "I know you're a healer, but some aloe can work wonders on making them less noticeable..."

"As for Omega, I don't know anything. When he led Toxicity he didn't worship any strange deities. He kept us from going to war... but was overall inconsequential. He left Toxicity shortly after his mate had kits. It was some sort of existential crisis or something like that, I don't know. He disappeared for a while, and then reappeared in Absum Lux. Again, he didn't worship anyone special. He found another mate their, but she disappeared. He was distraught and left soon after. I didn't see for awhile him after that, I was exiled from the Coalition soon after." A slight grin appeared on his face. "I met him again a few months ago on the border literally a day or two before Bloodycrow overthrew you... it looked like he and Discordantmelody just finished training." His eyes narrowed. "He predicted a good amount of what Bloodystar had planned. Not everything, he did get some details wrong, but he foresaw Bloodycrow's first phase without ever meeting him." He paused. "Frankly, he's a great strategist. If he scarred you like that, I don't understand how you're here. You should be dead."

His face remained motionless as he listened. "My past is behind me. While I'm grateful for what he taught me, he is the past. To me, he could have died moons ago." While he could not put his former mate behind him, his time as a monster was done. Well, mostly done. His apprentice had quite the training sessions, but other than that he was mostly in control. "I hope his death fitted his life, whatever you saw that to be. That being said, did he mention anyone he was conflicted about? By the time he returned to the Coalition, all of his family had dispersed. He was the type of tom to regret leaving his kits behind."
"
"I'm just concerned, that's all. We both know death isn't the end for anyone. All of Toxicity's ancestors are in the Dark Forest, and you just sent him there. He's among allies now, generations of them." Nightfury waved his tail and rose to his paws. "If he is as defeated as you say he is... I don't think he would be a problem. He's a strategist. He knows how to wait for an opportunity, and when he can use change to fight back."

He unsheathed his claws and tapped them on the sandstone beneath his paws. "Speaking of that... there's small change I want to make you aware of." His claws lightly cut across his own leg in an instant, and black blood oozed from the cut, but only momentarily. It quickly closed back up as an identical wound opened up on her leg. "A small development from when we last met." He wetted his paw and wiped the blood from his leg. He chuckled. "Really, you should have seen Bloodycrow's face when I introduced him to it. Granted, it was in far less amicable circumstances." He paused. "I wonder what would have happened if I killed the fool then... guess we'll never know."

"You would know just as well as me. One day I had normal blood, the next it was black. After that, I came across it by accident." He rolled his shoulders a bit. "I trust that you won't mention it. Sunnysmiles knows, but no one else here knows what I can do, and I want to keep it that way." He paused. "I'm only telling you because you're the High Priestess. I'm not going to share this with your Promised, or anyone else." The black tom's eyes revealed a flash of chaos. "I don't like cats poking around in my business."